WordPress Hosting · Comparison
Kinsta vs. WP Engine
Kinsta and WP Engine compared across Company facts, Pricing, Performance & infrastructure, WordPress management, Support & security and Platform & integrations — every fact sourced and re-verified from each vendor's public material.
Kinsta
Premium managed WordPress hosting on Google Cloud's Premium Tier, focused on speed and developer tooling.
WP Engine
Managed WordPress platform for businesses and agencies, with staging, CDN, and developer tooling.
Company facts
Headquarters
West Hollywood, CA Remote-first company; West Hollywood, CA is the registered US address
Austin, TX Founded 2010 in Austin, Texas
Employees
225 ~220-230 employees (distributed across 6 continents)
1k 1,000+ globally distributed employees (lower bound)
Pricing
Starting Monthly Price (USD)
$35 Single 20GB plan; $30/mo when billed annually ($350/yr)
$30 Startup plan, billed annually ($30/mo)
Entry Plan WordPress Sites
1 sites 1 WordPress install on the Single 20GB entry plan
1 sites Startup plan: 1 WordPress install
Entry Plan Monthly Visits
—
25k Startup plan: 25,000 monthly visits
Entry Plan Storage (GB)
10 GB 10 GB disk; entry plan meters bandwidth (20 GB server bandwidth), not visits
10 GB Startup plan: 10 GB local storage
Free Trial Length (Days)
0 days No standard free trial; new accounts get a first-month-free promo and a 30-day money-back guarantee
0 days No free trial; 60-day money-back guarantee instead
Money-Back Guarantee (Days)
30 days 30-day money-back guarantee (first-time customers; excludes one-time fees, overages, dedicated-server fees)
60 days 60-day money-back guarantee (annual plans)
Performance & infrastructure
Underlying Cloud
Google Cloud Google Cloud Platform, Premium Tier network
Google Cloud, AWS Google Cloud on all plans; AWS (and Azure) on Premium
Datacenter Locations
27 27 Google Cloud data center locations available for site placement
28 across Google Cloud, AWS & Azure; AWS and Azure regions plus 3 GCP regions are Premium-tier only
Free CDN
Cloudflare-powered CDN + edge caching, free on all plans (125 GB CDN bandwidth on entry plan)
Global CDN included on all plans
Web Server
NGINX NGINX-based stack
NGINX NGINX-based stack
Built-in Object Cache
Redis object cache is a paid add-on ($100/mo per site)
Object caching enabled by default; dedicated Redis on higher tiers
Latest PHP Version
8.5 PHP 8.5 generally available (selectable in MyKinsta); 7.4 through 8.5 supported
8.4 PHP 8.4 (beta; requires WordPress 6.7+)
Free SSL Certificate
Free Cloudflare/Let's Encrypt SSL, auto-provisioned and renewed; wildcard supported
Auto-renewing SSL included on all plans
WordPress management
Automatic WordPress Updates
Kinsta does not auto-update WordPress core; automatic plugin/theme updates are a paid add-on ($3/site/mo)
Managed WP, PHP & MySQL updates included
Staging Environments
One free standard staging environment on all plans, with push-to-live (selective file/DB push); premium staging is a paid add-on
1-click staging & dev environments on all plans
Automatic Daily Backups
Automatic daily backups with one-click restore; 6-hour/hourly backups are paid add-ons
Daily & on-demand automatic backups
Backup Retention (Days)
14 days 14 days of daily backups on the entry plan; higher tiers retain 30 days
40 days Revert to any backup up to 40 days
Free Site Migration
Unlimited free expert-handled migrations on all plans
Free automated migration plugin (WP Migrate)
SSH & WP-CLI Access
SSH access on all plans; WP-CLI v2 pre-installed on every server. Git supported.
SSH gateway with WP-CLI and Git on all plans
WordPress Multisite Support
Officially supported, but not on the entry plan: requires Single 40GB / Single 65k or higher
Multisite supported as add-on (Growth+); not on Startup
Support & security
Uptime SLA (%)
99.9% 99.9% SLA-backed uptime guarantee (up to 99.99% on custom plans)
99.99% 99.99% uptime SLA
24/7 Support
24/7/365 human expert support via live chat on all plans
24/7/365 chat support on all plans
Malware Removal / Hack Fix
Free hack-fix / malware removal under the Security Pledge (excludes nulled plugins/themes)
Free hack fix / malware cleaning for infections on-platform
WAF / DDoS Protection
Cloudflare-based managed WAF + L3/4/7 DDoS protection, free on all plans
Basic network DDoS included; managed WAF + advanced DDoS via paid Global Edge Security
Platform & integrations
Control Panel
custom MyKinsta custom dashboard (no cPanel)
custom Custom dashboard (WP Engine User Portal / my.wpengine.com)
White-Label / Agency Features
White-label WP admin, agency partner program, MyKinsta multi-client/team management
Agency plans, partner program, multi-site client management
Email Hosting Included
No email hosting; Kinsta recommends Google Workspace / Microsoft 365 and helps add MX records
No email hosting; recommends a dedicated provider (e.g. Google Workspace)
The verdict
Kinsta Best for built-in security and free expert migrations
Kinsta bundles a managed Cloudflare WAF and DDoS protection free on every plan, where WP Engine gates its managed WAF behind paid Global Edge Security. It also runs the newer PHP 8.5 and includes unlimited expert-handled migrations rather than a self-serve plugin.
Full profile WP Engine Best for hands-off managed maintenance and recovery
WP Engine includes object caching and automatic WP, PHP and MySQL updates by default, both of which are off or paid add-ons at Kinsta. It also retains backups 40 days versus 14, backs uptime with a 99.99% SLA, and gives a 60-day money-back window against Kinsta's 30.
Full profileSources · 35 verified references
pitchbook.com wpengine.com kinsta.com medium.com
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